Award-Winning Author of Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed; Growing Up with Undiagnosed Autism shares her book, life, and insight into the mind of children and adults on the autism spectrum.

IEP Meeting—The Little Man is Changing Schools!

Many of you know that I have been having trouble deciding whether or not to change the little man’s (9) school. Well the decision has been made, and I am feeling really good about it!

On Monday Hubby and I took Little Man to tour his new school (although we hadn’t made a definitive decision, we wanted him to have the chance to view the place and have some input).

Little Man started by shooting some hoops in the gym; gym received a thumbs up! Then we moved on to the library (his favorite place in the world), and he exclaimed that they had, “the best library ever,” and told them that their library/medial room teacher that their library was “approved, but they got a negative on school uniforms.” I guess he was weighting his pros and cons—he’s a funny kid.

We made a visit to the resource (special education) room, which promptly met his approval after trying out their trampoline. He inspected the playground for recess, watched the kids in the halls, peeked into the cafeteria, and stopped by where his brother (Tantrum Tot (3) will be going to class. We also touring the fourth grade classrooms, meeting the teachers. It was a great visit and little man proclaimed that the whole school gets a “thumbs up” and he wanted to start immediately.

I was still uncertain about the move because the school is clear across town (about 20 minutes in the car), and I was worried about logistics. Now that the Tot will be going to that school (because that is where the autism program is located), Little Man will be able to ride the bus with his brother everyday, and they are BOTH very excited about that!

TODAY’S IEP MEETING

Directly following the Tot’s IEP meeting today we had another IEP meeting (in the new school) for Little Man. They addressed ALL of my concerns. We either received or had addressed to our satisfaction, everything I asked for in the long list I posted here. These changes/additions and transportation were added to his IEP.

I happy to report the GOOD NEWS today, as I feel like many times when things go well I don’t say much, but can really get to writing when things go askew.

We went shopping for school uniforms with a very excited Little Man this afternoon after telling him he was starting his new school with his brother on Monday. (I am very happy about the two of them in uniform—nothing fancy just khakis and polos.)

Quick Recap: Tot and Little Man start Monday and will ride the bus together. (The bus comes to pick them up at 7 in the morning, which is a half hour LATER than the regular bus would have picked them up for their zoned school meaning no extra hours added to the school day due to transportation). New school does NOT have silent lunch! The children can talk at lunch, AND in the hallways. Recess everyday, which CANNOT (in the IEP) be taken away.

Oh, I almost forgot—in his current school he has to change classrooms for different classes, this new one does not start changing classes until the sixth grade. That alone makes many issues, now non-issues.

After our meeting today, and the changes that were made, and most importantly the helpful attitude of the staff, I am feel really great about our decision. And—Little Man is really looking forward to Monday!

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Jeannie Davide-Rivera

Jeannie is an award-winning author, the Answers.com Autism Category Expert, contributes to Autism Parenting Magazine, and the Thinking Person's Guide to Autism. She lives in New York with her husband and four sons, on the autism spectrum.

Jeanie this is so great! I am really hopeful for you all!
I had an OT tell me that SPD is escalated under stress. (I just experienced a very stressful event.) I couldn’t understand why going into a store is now a major crisis for me. All the noise plus the people bustling around plus my own kids who won’t stop fighting plus having to navigate where to go and how much money to spend…I end up walking circles in the parking lot wondering where my car is. (Not that I can remember on a good day lol) This makes me think of how sensory kids in school must feel. Just like their head is spinning and they just want to go hide in a dark closet so all the noise will stop.
I will be looking for the report this week to see how it goes!

I seriously hope everything turns out well with the new school even though I know changes are never all that easy, but I think he is definitely better off at the new school than at one that makes him so miserable, I think.

I think you made a great choice to change schools. I think my child has been to half of the elementary schools in our county because she wasn’t getting what she needed. I will say that she does seem to enjoy the bus ride even the times when she had to ride an hour both ways. Maybe the motion and the special transportation aide and drivers always were good to her (and me ) for that matter. Sometimes i think she likes the bus better than school. She gets her own seat and she gets her books to read or a musical toy and I think she would ride all day. we did have about 4 bus incidents in 17 years, but I think they know they better take very good care of her these days, esp. Since I am retired recently from the same county. 3 out of 4 bus incidents were very serious problems though and could have been very dangerous. Maybe that is why they are so exceptional now. Stay positive and only good things will come to your family.
Diane (Brooke’s Mom)

I think the Tot (his 3 yr old brother) is going to love that bus ride and I am hoping this too will be a turning point for his and maybe will entice him to leave the house with out flipping out in the morning. Fingers crossed.

I am feeling really good about the decision, all of my apprehension and hesitation and worry was relieved after yesterday’s meeting at the school.

you’re actually lucky. the ONLY school option around here is 20 minutes away, no matter how you cut it. its homeschool or 20 minutes. though, its a rural 20 minutes, no traffic jams. however, i have other reasons for homeschooling… but thought i would say that 20 minutes is really no big deal when you consider some people have no other options.

You are absolutely right! But the little man is so used to being home very soon after getting out of school that I was worried about a very long bus ride. In his last school, which was only 5 minutes from our house, he road the bus for an hour and a half to get home. It was a it excessive. I wanted to avoid that again.

Plus many times I can leave Aspie Teen home with the Baby (usually asleep in the morning) while I run down the road to drop off Little Man (less than 5 minutes). I will not be able to do that if I have to drive 20 minutes there, and 20 back. It would mean dragging the tot, little man, Aspie Teen AND the baby…that’s a lot of work to get us out of the house 🙁 It was my biggest misgiving about making the school switch.

I did try to homeschool Little Man in the second grade, and he hated it! Aspie teen loves it, but little man wanted to go to school and be with the other kids. I couldn’t deny him.

yeah.
we just had a school consolidation a couple years ago here. my high school merged with the neighboring town/rival. for a year everyone had to go to the rival school while the new school was being built. the new school is 4 miles from the rival town.
the distance that this school covers is extreme. its all so rural. one town is an hour from the school. i would easily say that the school covers easily a 60 mile distance in all directions. but its all rural. its not stop and go traffic, except to pick up kids. ill bet theres 600 kids, but its a k-12 school.

anyway, i said all that to say this: when they were proposing the new school, one of the biggest and loudest concerns were bus rides. some kinds did indeed have 1-1 1/2 hour bus rides. parents petitioned and hassled the school district and i think that the U of MN ended up doing a study on the bus routes to figure out a safe, short and cost effective way to bus kids to school. they increased the number of small buses and vans, and decreased the number of big busses. they have several vans that bring kids from here and there, and i think in one case they do meet at one location to board a big bus to make the final 20 minute drive.

so anyway, thats something to consider as you move forward as you see how this change goes. ill bet if you have concerns, there are other parents who have concerns as well. and those concerns should be pressed to the district people, to make the changes necessary, if that means more vans like our district chose, than so be it. 😉 vans save money in fuel too. 😛

It is so frustrating here because they reuse the buses. In other words, the bus all the elementary school kids, then the middle school, then the high school…so they stagger the times those groups go into school. Sounds like a plan but in order to accommodate them all the littlest ones get picked up really early in the morning. A few years ago when we lived in another part of town, little man (5 at the time) was picked up at 6:15 for an 8 o’clock school day…I actually think the special education buses that they are going to ride now may be better than the “regular” big buses. I hope.

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